Crop Prices Pare Weekly Gains Amid Outlook for Rising Production

Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Corn and soybeans fell in Chicago, paring weekly gains, on speculation that world supplies of both crops will be ample amid forecasts for rising production in the U.S., the biggest grower.

Corn is heading for the first weekly increase in more than a month after the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut its forecast for domestic grain and oilseed harvests on Aug. 12 and said yesterday wet weather barred farmers from planting corn on 3.4 million acres. The U.S. corn harvest may still be a record and soybean output will jump 8 percent after fields recovered from last year’s drought.

"The major factor over the next month or so is going to be the weather," Dan Hofstad, a risk-management consultant at INTL FCStone, said in a telephone interview from London. "People will be watching what the early yield looks like and if they’re in line with what the market and the USDA are estimating."

Corn for December delivery fell 0.8 percent to $4.6825 a bushel by 7:03 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade, leaving a 3.3 percent gain for this week, the first such increase since the week-ended July 12. The most-active contract is down 33 percent this year on the outlook for record crops.

Soybeans for November delivery dropped 0.5 percent to $12.5975 a bushel. That would still leave futures up 6.6 percent this week, the most since July 2012.

Too Much Rain

The USDA cut its outlook for U.S. corn production on Aug. 12 to 13.76 billion bushels, compared with a July estimate at 13.95 billion. Output would still be 28 percent larger than last year. The soybean forecast was cut to 3.26 billion bushels from 3.42 billion bushels. Farmers were unable to plant 1.62 million acres originally slated for soybeans because of excess rain, the USDA’s Farm Service Agency said in a separate report yesterday based on crop insurance filings.

Areas of southeast Nebraska, northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas saw some rain yesterday, according to a DTN report today. The forecast for the Midwest is mostly dry through at least Aug. 21, the forecaster said. Crops are maturing at a slower-than-average pace, leaving them vulnerable to damage if frost arrives in September or early October before harvesting is complete, Hofstad said.

Wheat for December delivery fell 0.4 percent to $6.47 a bushel, erasing this week’s advance. In Paris, milling wheat for November delivery dropped 0.9 percent to 184 euros ($245) a metric ton on NYSE Liffe.

--Editors: Dan Weeks, Sharon Lindores.

To contact the reporters on this story: Whitney McFerron in London at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net; Chanyaporn Chanjaroen in Singapore at cchanjaroen@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net